Better Call Saul - Starts Slowly
Feb. 25th, 2025 12:55 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
canyonwalkerI've taken the plunge into watching Better Call Saul on Netflix. It's a prequel spinoff from the highly acclaimed Breaking Bad series, which I thoroughly enjoyed watching over the past few months. (Note I'm watching these shows belatedly. Breaking Bad aired between 2008-2013, Better Call Saul ran from 2015-2022.) After watching the first 3 episodes I'm... disappointed.
Nothing's wrong with the show. The characters are believable, it's well acted, well written, and the production values are high. So many new shows I see on streaming services fail one or more of these points. So to say "Nothing's wrong" with it puts it ahead of the curve. But at the same time, yes, I'm absolutely damning it with faint praise. To be worth watching a show needs rate better than merely "not stupid" or "not fatally flawed". It needs to actually be interesting. And so far this show is not interesting.
Why is it not interesting? It's not interesting because it's too slow. Three episodes in, it feels like nothing has happened.
What am I expecting? Well, similar to how Breaking Bad was conceptualized as Walter White's transition from Mr. Chips to Scarface I've been expecting Better Call Saul to answer the question that struck me at Saul's first appeared in Breaking Bad S2E8: How did this ambulance-chasing lawyer become a drug-gang consigliere?
Directionally, I'm confident that's where it's going. But it's taking way too long to get there. In the first three episodes Saul (played by Bob Odenkirk) isn't even Saul. He's still using his given name of James McGill. He's a down-on-his-luck young lawyer. His office is in the back of a nail salon, and his only work is taking on Public Defender cases to scrape by. A lot of time is spent on McGill's supporting his mentally ill older brother, pursuing an ambiguous relationship with a lawyer at a big-dollar firm who might be an ex-girlfriend, and his personal rivalry with the managing partner at that big-dollar firm. Oh, and the running gag twice each episode of him fighting with the parking lot attendant each time he's at City Hall and doesn't have the right number of validation stickers on his parking stub.
Compare this to Breaking Bad where, all in the opening episode, Walter White went from mild-mannered high school chemistry teacher to cooking his first batch of methamphetamine and killing at least one rival drug dealer to protect himself. Clearly that show didn't dwell very long on introducing the character and the context. While that's the point of Act I of Shakespeare's 5-act structure, Breaking Bad wisely understood setup can't be 20% of the series.
So, what keeps me watching? Primarily, one, it's my optimism from so many fans of Breaking Bad who recommended this show that it's going to get better soon. Two, it's that at least it doesn't suck right now. And three, it's that running gag with the parking validation. The parking lot attendant McGill constantly butts heads with is Mike Ehrmantraut (played by Jonathan Banks). In Breaking Bad he's a hit man and drug gang lieutenant. Thus as much as I'm watching to enjoy the character arc of ambulance-chasing, sad-sack lawyer James McGill becoming drug-gang consigliere Saul Goodman, I'm eager to see how the guy who'll become a drug-gang lieutenant and hit man is hiding out as a quiet parking lot attendant.
Nothing's wrong with the show. The characters are believable, it's well acted, well written, and the production values are high. So many new shows I see on streaming services fail one or more of these points. So to say "Nothing's wrong" with it puts it ahead of the curve. But at the same time, yes, I'm absolutely damning it with faint praise. To be worth watching a show needs rate better than merely "not stupid" or "not fatally flawed". It needs to actually be interesting. And so far this show is not interesting.
Why is it not interesting? It's not interesting because it's too slow. Three episodes in, it feels like nothing has happened.
What am I expecting? Well, similar to how Breaking Bad was conceptualized as Walter White's transition from Mr. Chips to Scarface I've been expecting Better Call Saul to answer the question that struck me at Saul's first appeared in Breaking Bad S2E8: How did this ambulance-chasing lawyer become a drug-gang consigliere?
Directionally, I'm confident that's where it's going. But it's taking way too long to get there. In the first three episodes Saul (played by Bob Odenkirk) isn't even Saul. He's still using his given name of James McGill. He's a down-on-his-luck young lawyer. His office is in the back of a nail salon, and his only work is taking on Public Defender cases to scrape by. A lot of time is spent on McGill's supporting his mentally ill older brother, pursuing an ambiguous relationship with a lawyer at a big-dollar firm who might be an ex-girlfriend, and his personal rivalry with the managing partner at that big-dollar firm. Oh, and the running gag twice each episode of him fighting with the parking lot attendant each time he's at City Hall and doesn't have the right number of validation stickers on his parking stub.
Compare this to Breaking Bad where, all in the opening episode, Walter White went from mild-mannered high school chemistry teacher to cooking his first batch of methamphetamine and killing at least one rival drug dealer to protect himself. Clearly that show didn't dwell very long on introducing the character and the context. While that's the point of Act I of Shakespeare's 5-act structure, Breaking Bad wisely understood setup can't be 20% of the series.
So, what keeps me watching? Primarily, one, it's my optimism from so many fans of Breaking Bad who recommended this show that it's going to get better soon. Two, it's that at least it doesn't suck right now. And three, it's that running gag with the parking validation. The parking lot attendant McGill constantly butts heads with is Mike Ehrmantraut (played by Jonathan Banks). In Breaking Bad he's a hit man and drug gang lieutenant. Thus as much as I'm watching to enjoy the character arc of ambulance-chasing, sad-sack lawyer James McGill becoming drug-gang consigliere Saul Goodman, I'm eager to see how the guy who'll become a drug-gang lieutenant and hit man is hiding out as a quiet parking lot attendant.
